Today, people cross the tracks to forage for wild foods, pick organic blueberries, collect community-supported-agriculture shares and meet people like Abbey Duke, who offers samples of salads from Sugarsnap, her farm-based takeout restaurant perched at the Intervale’s entrance. The green beans and bronze fennel, cherry tomatoes and purple basil are all grown on Sugarsnap’s own farm just a five-minute bike ride away. “The Intervale was really why I wanted to start a business like this,” says Duke. “It’s an incredible resource right in the city.”

Or they might meet Asha Abdille—a gardener in the New Farms for New Americans project run by a local refugee organization with Intervale Center support—sharing samosas made in the style of her native Somalia, filled with homegrown onions, peppers and carrots. Abdille grows vegetables mostly for her family, she says, but also welcomes any income made selling extras at Intervale Thursdays and the farmers’ market. “When my children eat the food I bring home from the garden, I feel comfortable because I grew it and I know where it comes from,” Abdille explains. “The food is fresh and the kids are happy.”